Public service hit hard as thousands more are told they could lose their jobs

Canada’s public service took one of its hardest ever hits in a single day on Wednesday, when more than 8,200 government employees received letters telling them their jobs may be eliminated.

The notices bring the total number of those who in the past week have received workforce-adjustment letters to more than 10,000. While not all of those who receive the letters will lose their jobs, it could take weeks, if not months, before they know for sure whether they still have a job with the Canadian government.

While many of those who have received notices work in the National Capital Region, not a single part of the country was spared.

To date, the Public Service Alliance of Canada has been told that 7,161 of its members may be affected by government budget cuts; the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada is up to more than 1,900 notices; and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees has been told 853 members are affected or that they are facing an impending layoff.

John Gordon, president of PSAC, said his union has never seen job cuts initiated so soon after the tabling of a federal budget.

“The government is rushing these cuts through without telling Canadians what they will mean for public services,” Gordon told reporters at a hastily convened news conference. “Unless the government comes clean with the facts, Canadians won’t know what services will be lost until they are gone.”

PSAC had initially said 5,561 of its members in 23 government departments or agencies across the country received workforce-adjustment notices on Wednesday. Of that number, 2,224 work in the national capital, 775 work in the Prairies, 432 in Ontario, 236 in the Atlantic provinces, 236 in Quebec, 222 in British Columbia and 11 in the North.

The union later updated that number to include notices sent to 481 employees of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) who are members of the PSAC-affiliated Agriculture Union, bringing the total to 6,042.

The agriculture department sent out notices to 689 PSAC members — more than half of them in the Prairies — and 153 members of PIPSC.

The Agriculture Union said the agency is going to cut as many as 100 food inspectors, many of whom were added following a deadly outbreak of listeriosis at a Maple Leaf Foods plant. However, Conservative MP Pierre Lemieux told CBC 50 inspectors are actually carrying out provincial meat inspections and will be transferred to provinces.

“Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are transforming the way they do business and changes being announced today will reduce barriers to growth and help spur the long-term economic prosperity of our agriculture and food industry.

“The Agency will not make any changes that would in any way place the health and safety of Canadians at risk.”

The Canada Border Services Agency is sending notices to 1,137 PSAC members while the Canadian International Development Agency has notified 534 PSAC members — all but five in the National Capital Region.

Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada are among those taking a hit. Health Canada is sending out notices this week to 715 members of PSAC, 328 members of PIPSC and roughly 335 to members of CAPE. The Public Health Agency of Canada sent notices to 483 PSAC members, 75 members of PIPSC and about 130 members of CAPE.

Gary Corbett, president of PIPSC, said the layoff notices provide insight into the government’s priorities.

“With this second round of cuts, it’s clear where the government’s priorities lie — more industry self-regulation, fewer checks and balances to protect our food and our environment, and less science in the public interest,” Corbett said in a statement.

“Most of these professionals — including biologists, chemists, veterinarians and medical doctors — work to protect the safety and well-being of Canadians in such fields as food and product testing and environmental monitoring,” said the union.

In other departments, it is information technology specialists, commerce officers, engineers and researchers being targeted, PIPSC said. Industry Canada is sending letters to 219 employees, Natural Resources Canada to 156, and the Canadian Space Agency is advising 23. Citizenship and Immigration is advising 40 employees they are affected. Foreign Affairs and International Trade is advising 53.

Claude Danik of CAPE said roughly 66 of its members received notices on April 4 from six organizations. Tuesday, a further 98 members received a letter from two organizations. The biggest hit came Wednesday, when 685 CAPE members received notices from 12 organizations, most of them from Health Canada and the Public Health Agency, Danik said.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement’s office maintains the cuts are reasonable and will improve the way government works.

“It’s in Canadians’ interest that our government has found fair and moderate savings measures to reduce the deficit; reducing the size of the federal public service by only four percent over three years,” said Jenn Gearey, director of communication. “In addition, 70 percent of the savings identified are operational efficiencies. What we are doing is eliminating waste and unnecessary duplication—and leaner, more affordable government is in the interest of all Canadians. Canadians expect no less from their government but public sector union bosses are apparently opposed to these common sense changes. As we have conveyed repeatedly, we sought input from unions when we embarked on our savings exercise but none responded.”

The workforce-adjustment letters being sent out by government departments are the first stage in a long and sometimes complicated process that could take weeks or even months to unfold. In many cases the government must notify all of the employees in a given job classification that jobs are being cut even though not everyone who gets a letter is going to lose their job.

Once notice of the upcoming job cuts is given, there is also a process that allows employees who want to leave the government to alternate with employees whose positions are being eliminated.

The job cuts are the end result of the year-long strategic and operating review which looked for ways to cut between five and 10 per cent from the budget of each government department. In his budget, Flaherty announced the government would cut 19,200 jobs during the next three years – 7,000 of them through attrition.